Stanley Lombardo, Professor of Classics at the University of Kansas, is a native of New Orleans. Professor Lombardo’s publications are primarily literary translations of Greek poetry, including Homer’s Iliad (Hackett, 1997; reviewed in the New York Times, 7/20/97; recipient of the Byron Caldwell Book Award; performed by Aquila Theatre Company at Lincoln Center, 1999); Homer’s Odyssey (Hackett, 2000, a New York Times Book of the Year); translations of Plato, Hesiod, Callimachus, and of Sappho, which was a finalist for the 2003 Pen Literary Award for translation; and most recently Virgil’s Aeneid, also a finalist for a Pen award and reviewed in the New York Review of Books (April, 2007).

Professor Lombardo also maintains an interest in Asian philosophy and has co-authored a translation of Tao Te Ching. He is now working on a translation of Dante’s Inferno, and on an anthology of Zen texts.  He has given dramatic readings of his translations on campuses throughout the country, as well as at such venues as the Smithsonian Institution, the Chicago Humanities Festival and on C-SPAN and National Public Radio. He has recorded and released award-winning audio books (Parmenides Press) of his Homer translations.

Recorded Thursday, February 28, 2008 at University of Chicago.